


movie theatres for superheroes

by maketea



Series: fictober 2019 [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fictober 2019, Fluff, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-01
Updated: 2019-10-01
Packaged: 2020-11-09 09:53:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20851502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maketea/pseuds/maketea
Summary: adrien insists there’s a way for a superhero to get into a movie theatre.





	movie theatres for superheroes

**Author's Note:**

> fictober day 1: “it will be fun, trust me.”

Adrien phrased her name like a question, even though he knew she was there — a premium subscription to the Ladyblog definitely accounted for something. He hoped, before tucking away his sheet music and climbing out the window, that she hadn’t left yet (his lady was always a little fidgety), or he’d be faced with the walk of shame back home past his curfew — though it wasn’t like that was very late, anyway.

“Ladybug?” he called up to the rooftop. 

She jumped, and upon catching his eye, frantically sat up straight — just to lose her grasp on the ridge and slide down the tiles until her feet splashed into the gutter water.

Adrien smiled. He made a note to sneak up on her more often.

“H-hi, Adrien,” she said. “What’re you doing out this late?”

He prepared for this. Adrien rehearsed this whole conversation with Plagg three times, and when Plagg told him to get over himself, practiced another four times in the bathroom mirror. Ladybug would ask him what he was doing out late, and he would brush back his hair, lean against the advertising stand like a James Dean poster, and say—

“I bought cheese.”

She stared at him. He stared back.

In hindsight, the plan never would have worked. The first nearby advertising stand was two blocks down.

Ladybug still hadn’t taken her feet out of the gutter. “You bought cheese at 9PM?” She eyed his plastic bag skeptically. 

He clutched it a little tighter. “Uh, yeah! Late night cravings, you know?”

Inside his shirt, Plagg snickered.

“Do you want me to walk you home?” She started to unwind her yo-yo, pulling herself up the rooftop until she could stand on the ridge. Her ankles were soaked with brown water. 

“No, no, it’s fine!” he blurted out. Ladybug probably had better things to do, anyway. If she wanted someone around, she would’ve left a voicemail on his cat phone. 

(And he had zero voicemails. Plagg told him, word-for-word, that ‘Ladybug is too cool and too busy to sit around and leave you voicemails’. Adrien stopped asking, after that).

“Oh.” Her expression faltered, and she lowered herself back onto the ridge. “Okay. Get back safely.”

He watched her bring her knees up to her chest and prop her head up with her hands, like she had before he surprised her. Adrien got a good look at her. She stared off into the city lights, and the skyscrapers, and the parked taxis, her face pale under the moonlight. Ladybug was still, but his lady was always a little fidgety.

He wrung the plastic bag around fingers. “My La— Ladybug.”

She looked around, a little more colour in her cheeks. “Hm?”

She was so pretty, and he was so gone. Ladybug sat atop a rooftop like a ruby against the night sky and was looking at him —  _ him  _ — like whatever he could possibly say next would matter. He wanted to transform right then and there, haul himself up onto that rooftop, and sit right beside her. Smell her perfume. See the tiny hairs on her cheek.  Be near enough to feel the hand she used to rub her thigh touch his calf, too.

Adrien was standing in the middle of a pavement gaping at Ladybug after saying her name.

He jerked back into motion when she hunched her shoulders a bit more. “Are—are you okay?”

“Of course,” she said. Ladybug averted her eyes to her lap. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

It wasn’t a patrol night, and there she was sitting on a rooftop after sundown with a leaf from the gutter stuck to her foot. She was overlooking the city, which she told him — or rather, Chat Noir — helped her cool off after a bad day. She couldn’t meet his eyes, which was why she was awful at lying. His lady couldn’t look anyone in the eyes and lie to them.

But that was Chat Noir’s insider information. Adrien shouldn’t know that.

“It’s just…” he tried. “You seem a little sad.”

She peeled the leaf off her foot and crumpled it, looking back out at Paris. Like that, he could see tears glistening on her mask. 

“It’s no big deal, Adrien,” she said softly. “You should go home before it gets too late.”

He couldn’t leave her there. A civilian could have, and even though Plagg was nestled into his shirt rather than charging him with superpowers, Adrien wasn’t a regular civilian. 

Regular civilians weren’t Ladybug’s best friend. 

“I-I changed my mind.” Determined, he met her gaze when she looked down at him. “Could you walk with me? My father probably won’t tell me off if he knows a superhero made sure I got home okay.”

Her smile didn’t reach her eyes, which were still too shiny. “Of course.”

She stood up on the ridge, stretched, and leapt onto the pavement.

The first few minutes were silent. They passed a theatre, two advertising stands (none of which Adrien leaned against like a James Dean poster), and came up to a thrift shop when Ladybug broke the silence.

“There’s this boy,” she said softly. Looking ahead, but not at him.

Adrien’s heart clenched. He took in a deep breath. “It’s a boy that’s making you sad?”

“Yes. No.” She sighed, and rubbed her forehead. The words came out in a flurry — an accidental, impulsive, emotional flurry. “I’m sad because I love him but I know he could do so much better.”

Adrien almost stopped walking. She never opened up to him like this. Then again, it wouldn’t be very characteristic of her to talk about the boy she loves to Chat Noir, whose name appeared on gossip columns much too frequently for being in love with his superhero partner. 

Still, she wouldn’t look at him. Ladybug had her lips clamped together, arms crossed tight, and watched the smooth concrete while they walked.

“I hope this doesn’t sound a little insensitive,” he countered, “but it’s a little hard to do much better than a literal superhero.”

She giggled. “Maybe.” As if it were nothing, she reached up and flicked a few tears away. “I wish I could act like a superhero around him.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean…” She sniffed. “I can’t be myself around him. Whenever I see him my heart just… gets so tight, you know?”

He did. He knew more than she would have believed.

“It’s like the only thing I can think about is him, and then I just… mess everything up.” When she stopped walking, he did too. Ladybug put her hands on her face and took in a shaky breath. “I’m so lame. I shouldn’t be telling you all of this.”

She wept quietly. Adrien stared, at a loss of what to say and what to do — whether it was the moment to do either, as it was. 

He never would have thought Ladybug carried such an aching heart inside of her. She never breathed a word about it.

He was madly in love with her. Chat Noir reminded her everyday like an excited toddler. He told her how badly he wanted her to love him, how perfect they would be together. And she’d laugh it off — mostly. When she didn’t laugh, she apologised. Sometimes she apologised so deeply and so sadly, Chat Noir wanted to beg her to stop, because Ladybug should not have had to apologise for not loving him. 

She was too busy tiptoeing around his feelings to ever really talk about her own. 

Guilt struck his stomach hard. If he could only take her into his arms, hush her, tell her how sorry he was, how he was here now, how she could tell him everything she’d been keeping bottled up inside of her for so long, he would have thrown his plastic bag aside and done just that. 

But he couldn't.

“I know how you feel,” he told her. “It’s terrible, right? Being crazy in love with someone you think deserve better?”

She peered up at him with wet eyes.

(He just wanted to lean in and kiss her tears from her eyes to her cheek to where they fell between her lips—)

“As if you know how that feels. You’re Adrien Agreste.”

He swallowed hard. “You’re Ladybug. Who wouldn’t love you?”

Ladybug looked at him weirdly, and for a moment he thought he’d been found out. It was too honest of him to say that, as if he knew her, as if he was one of those poor people whom she didn’t notice bearing their heart and accidentally broke it.

The thing is, he was. She just couldn’t know that.

“I think I want to go home,” she murmured. 

And perhaps it would have been best for her if she did. But nothing could reassure Adrien that Ladybug would be returning to a family any better than his, and the very idea of her not turned his stomach. 

“Let’s go somewhere together.”

Ladybug looked up. “W-what?”

His fingers twitched to cup her face. Instead, Adrien played with the plastic bag.

“We can go watch a movie, or something.” His heart pounded. “To get your mind off things. It’ll be fun, trust me.”

“I-I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she said. “You should be getting home, and I’m still transformed — superheroes can’t just walk into movie theatres, you know.”

Adrien turned ahead, and found the warm glow of the thrift shop not too far off.

He grinned. “What if they can?”

Not waiting to hear her response, Adrien grabbed Ladybug’s wrist and hauled her towards the glow. The glass doors were closed, but there was still a skewed  _ OPEN _ sign in the entrance.

He tried the door; it unlocked with a gentle push.

They must have come through a back entrance, because Adrien and Ladybug, hand in hand, stood amongst a sea of  _ 25% OFF! _ written in bright red on yellowing card. The shop was suffocated by racks stuffed with shirts, tartan dresses, flimsy suits, and singlets with stupid emblems on them. They were the only ones there, save for the cashier far at the front at his desk.

Adrien ushered Ladybug towards a row of fitting rooms. He drew back one of the dark blue curtains for her. 

“Wait here,” he said.

“What are you—”

He let the curtain drop, and made a beeline for the rack in front of him.

Adrien snatched a thick coat off its hanger and marvelled at it. When he held it a little above his head, the hemline still grazed the floor. He figured it must have been a dark, rich ebony, at some point, but now, covered in lint and the colour of time, the trench coat looked something like a sickly grey. Doing a full turn, he swiped a pair of large hiking gloves that were much bigger than his own hands, and a pair of sunglasses that could have been opaque. With his plan piled up in his arms, Adrien rushed back to Ladybug’s changing room and dumped it on the floor, except the coat.

“What are you doing, Adrien?” she sighed, tone so familiar his heart stopped when she didn’t say ‘Chat Noir’.

“I,” he replied, fussing with the coat until he could hold it open, “am proving to you that a superhero  _ can  _ go to a movie theatre. Now, arms out.”

She did as told. He lugged the thick coat around her, and slipped the sleeves over her arms. Ladybug slouched under its weight, and gasped when he pushed the sunglasses onto her face. 

“I must look ridiculous.”

“I never said you wouldn’t.” He took her hands and pulled the gloves on for her, then turned her by the shoulders to look in the mirror. “Ta-da!”

Ladybug looked at herself for one long, silent moment. She lowered her sunglasses, and sent him the most deadpan look her red eyes could muster through the reflection.

“I  _ do _ look ridiculous.” She felt the top of her head. “And my hair is still showing. I’m sorry, Adrien. This just wouldn’t work.”

Before she undid the top button of the coat, Adrien pulled her hood low down her forehead.

“Hey!” she yelled.

“See? Now nobody can see your hair.” 

She lowered the collar from around her mouth just to frown at him.

“I think you look great,” he said with a grin.

“Oh yeah?” She turned to face him. “Then why don’t  _ you  _ wear a disguise, too?”

He chuckled. “I’m not a superhero.”

“But you are a super _ model _ .” She poked his chest. “What? You think Adrien Agreste walking around at nine o’clock at night with a weird trench coat goblin will get less attention than walking around with Ladybug?”

He snickered. There was that temper he adored.

“Fine, weird trench coat goblin,” he said, lifting the curtain, “I’ll join you.”

Adrien’s trench coat was blue, not black, and he supposed he didn’t need any hiking gloves to cover any super suit. He found the exact same glasses as Ladybug’s, and made sure to wear his enormous hood with them on.

He came back in. Ladybug looked him up and down.

“I’m… speechless.”

“I’m super attractive, right?”

“Yes,” she said immediately. Ladybug clapped a hiking glove over her mouth. “I mean no! I mean, not right at this minute — or anytime, really, because  _ I’m _ not attracted to you, but other people might! Maybe not now, though. I’m not attracted to you now — I’m not attracted to you usually!”

He blinked at her. That was something he never saw her do. It almost reminded him of…

Hm.

She averted her eyes. “Anyway. I’m glad I won’t be the only one wearing this… getup.”

“Does that mean you’ll come to the movies with me?” he beamed.

Adrien watched her reflection smile. Ladybug pushed on her sunglasses and fixed her hood. “It wouldn’t hurt to try.”

They paid wearing those clothes, and their tinted sunglasses meant they couldn’t see the odd look the cashier gave them — in fact, they couldn’t see the odd looks  _ anyone _ gave them. Although the street was quiet, there was the occasional passerby that would stop to scrunch their eyebrows up at them, but Adrien and Ladybug were too busy laughing to notice. 

“They should really improve the security in this place,” she mused, shrugging off her coat. It fell in a heap against her chair, its mass enough to keep it from springing shut. “Isn’t it a little weird they let two people in obvious disguises in to see a movie?”

“Not that weird, considering no one’s here.”

“Still.” She dropped into her chair and took some popcorn from their bucket. “I can’t believe you like salted popcorn.”

“I can’t believe you like sweet!”

“Of course I’d like sweet! I live on top of a ba—” Ladybug bit down on her bottom lip.

An identity thing, he realised. He didn’t push the matter.

They finished half the box by the time the trailers started. Ladybug took the popcorn away from him and put it aside so he wouldn’t eat any more.

“But Ladybug—”

“You’ll regret it once you get snacky halfway through the movie.”

He pretended to be upset, but found himself laughing, anyway, like he had the whole evening.

It was easy to laugh with Ladybug, but sometimes the reminder of why he offered to take her out in the first place crept up on him in the middle of it. He had to remember she loved somebody else. To her, it meant nothing when their knees brushed while she made herself comfortable. It meant nothing that their shoulders were pressed together because they pushed their armrest up to share the popcorn bucket. It meant nothing that they were together, alone, in a movie theatre, sitting close enough to feel how warm the other was.

Ladybug fiddled with her sunglasses. “Hey, Adrien?”

“Yeah, Ladybug?”

The trailers flickered across her face while she considered. Then, she released the sunglasses, and gently, ever so slowly, reached to his lap and placed her hand on top of his.

“Thank you,” she said, and smiled at him. Her eyes weren’t swollen anymore, and her smile must have been genuine — his heart wouldn’t seize up for nothing. “You really cheered me up tonight. It means a lot to me.”

“Y-you don’t need to thank me.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s the least I could do.”

Ladybug squeezed his hand.

The lights dimmed. In the dark, he felt her weight hesitantly lean against him, then her hair sweeping his cheek. Adrien wrapped an arm around her, cradled her like glass, and Ladybug made herself comfortable right above his racing heartbeat.

If she felt him kiss her forehead, she said nothing. But she did move closer. 

**Author's Note:**

> YEAH SO this got a lot longer than anticipated so uhhh the other fictober stuff i do will probably be shorter hehe


End file.
